When Ye Linsheng, a salesperson from the Lianhe Rice Product Company in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, learned that the company would suspend production due to excessive amounts of cadmium in its rice products, he felt like his company was being victimized.

Random quarterly checks by Guangzhou's food and drug authorities found that rice noodles from two rice product companies in Dongguan, including Ye's company, as well as rice in Guangzhou canteens that had come from four rice producers in Hunan, were past the national limit of 0.2 milligrams of cadmium per kilogram.

Ye said it wasn't fair, because when they bought the cadmium-laced rice from Hunan Province, the quality-test reports provided by the producers hadn't included any information about cadmium.

The producers felt like victims because they are running their businesses in line with national standards. However, the insidious nature of cadmium, coupled with business disputes and a monopolized supervision system are conspiring to thwart attempts at reform of the system.

Mysterious poisons

The canteens claimed that the rice and rice noodle producers had provided test reports on rice quality according to the national standards, as well as their production licenses, but cadmium tests weren't included.

Ye said the local quality supervision bureau comes to the mill to inspect their products once a month, but cadmium isn't part of the process and they pass all the tests.

Both the dining facilities and the rice product mills said all they can do is trust the reports from producers.

Three rice producers from     Youxian county, Hunan Province, revealed by the Guangzhou authorities as producing tainted rice, told the Nandu Daily that they had no idea how these problems occurred as their job is just packaging the rice. They said the local quality supervision bureau sometimes conducts inspections, but this had never halted their business operations before.

Local residents and even the producers themselves are confident enough in the quality of their product to eat the rice, the newspaper reported.

However, according to Ma Tianjie, an environmentalist from NGO Greenpeace, cadmium can be sneaky when it comes to spreading.

He told the Global Times that in terms of heavy metals emissions, Hunan Province ranks first nationwide, and as the substance can move through soil and water, rice can be tainted by cadmium even without factories being nearby. He added that rice in particular is good at absorbing cadmium.

"Rice is the Chinese people's staple food and ingesting cadmium over a long period can cause changes in organs, especially kidneys," Ma said.

Beyond a potential health toll, financial tolls also lurk.

"Since April, clients from Guangdong Province have stopped buying rice from me," Hou Dezhong, a rice producer from Hengdong county, Hunan Province, said. "Even if I provide them with quality test reports including cadmium testing, they still don't believe them. I used to sell 600 tons of rice to Guangdong each month, but I've had to reduce production."

Ye has similar sentiments. "We are also a victim. If the quality supervision bureaus had conducted the tests more carefully, it wouldn't be like this. It will be a pity if our mill has to shut down."

Tests and big business

This isn't the first time cadmium-tainted rise has hit the headlines. A 2009 incident had murky origins, with some speculating that the cadmium-tainted rice was part of a negotiating ploy with a massive fortune at stake.

According to a report in the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily, the price of rice plunged in the second half of 2009, prompting the Shenzhen Group to ask producers to lower the price of rice shipments still awaiting payment, so as to ensure the sustainability of the company.

The rice producers refused. This was when the Shenzhen Group had the rice tested, with the results showing that they contained excessive levels of cadmium.

The Group responded by saying that if the rice producers did not reduce the price they would destroy the faulty rice, and not pay for it.

The producers compromised and the Shenzhen group earned a huge profit as it resold the rice when the market peaked.

Although the Shenzhen group denied the report by saying that it had returned all the cadmium-tainted rice and none of it entered the market, people in Guangdong have been suspicious about the quality of rice from Hunan ever since.

Hou Dezhong told the Global Times that since March, cadmium testing has been included in tests by the Hengyang municipal quality supervision bureau - largely due to Guangdong people's suspicions toward Hunan rice.

A staff member surnamed Zhu from the Dongguan quality supervision and test center told the Global Times that producers can send their product samples to be tested and choose what testing items they want to include. This is something producers must pay for. The only alternative is going through the test bureau, either at the producer's request or having the process initiated by the bureau.

"Most of the time, producers choose to send their product samples here themselves, as having the bureau initiate it means waiting for the bureau to start the process," said Zhu, adding that testing the cadmium content of product samples of 500 grams costs 150 yuan ($24.44).

The current quality test system causes people in different parts of rice production and circulation to feel unfairly targeted, Gao Qinwei, an expert in food safety supervision and professor with the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times, adding that local quality supervision bureaus monopolize product quality testing in China.

He said that this means tests are often merely a façade because of limited human and material resources.

"The requirements for quality tests are also a problem," Gao said. "The current quality tests for rice just focus on appearance, such as the plumpness. This isn't in line with industrial development as products may contain unexpected substances due to the changes in soil and water."

Gao said that the best way to deal with these problems would be to introduce private quality test institutes that could act as a real third party, to break the monopolies of the bureaus and let the market play a role in the process.